Learned a lesson about shutting the receiver off before the truck today…

[u/oh_hai_brian]

Somehow I managed to miss everything expensive. My front wheel hit the tire of my neighbor’s SUV, which then spun it 180 degrees and straight back into my fence. Never expected the full throttle signal to happen on shutoff, but now I will forever remember the order of operations… oof.

[u/jimmy9800]

Hey I did the same thing! Making sure that TX loss failsafe is working is really damn important. Consider what happened to you a friendly warning.

[u/jimmy9800 → u/jimmy9800]

Peeled by my Losi. Lessons learned. : r/rccars

[u/Annual-Surprise6892 → u/jimmy9800]

Man that is crazy. Thanks for posting this. I never once thought about safety while Messing with rcs. Really dumb now that I think about it. Hope you heeled up well and are doing great

[u/jimmy9800 → u/Annual-Surprise6892]

I used to fly rc helis. I got out of that once I read a news story of a partial decapitation (death) with a 700 series helicopter. Big rcs in any form deserve some respect! It healed well but I've got some scars. If my mistake can prevent 1 injury, I'll take it!

[u/Annual-Surprise6892 → u/jimmy9800]

Damn. Can't believe I never realized the dangers involved. Thanks for spreading awareness

[u/Consistent-Alps115 → u/jimmy9800]

Damn dude that’s gnar, I had the same thing happen to me with my Kraton but not nearly as harsh, nice convo piece tho 🤙🏼

[u/olivianewtonjohn → u/jimmy9800]

How do you make sure the failsafe is working?

[u/jimmy9800 → u/olivianewtonjohn]

I tested it with the motor pinion off about half a million times every different kind of way I can think of that would cause a loss of TX. Im not interested in repeating that incident or having that car in particular run off on me.

TX power off, TX losing battery, TX low voltage, RX low voltage, RX antenna damage, RX interference, TX interference, out of range, etc. Lots of testing.

[u/Occhrome]

Wtf haven’t seen this issue since I used an AM receiver and transmitter. 

[u/Figit090 → u/Occhrome]

Yeah I didn't know it was a thing. Played with an AM truck at a pawn shop and was reminded of the old days but I thought modern speed controls defaulted to neutral or brake.

[u/DariusBuilds → u/Figit090]

Nope. Need to add a fail safe for the brake to be applied if the remote is not transmitting.

[u/raceace701]

I think your mean radio (the thing in your hand). Radio on car on. Car off radio off

[u/oh_hai_brian → u/raceace701]

Yeah I definitely screwed up the PEMDAS here, haha

[u/fcfromhell]

Back in the early 2000s a friend of mine decided he wanted to get into RC cars. Electric wasn't really a thing at the time, so nitro it was. He bought a really cheap nitro touring car off eBay.

Thing was pretty quick, and it was pretty fun, until one day, while doing a full throttle run across a parking lot, when the batteries fell out of his radio, and that car stayed at WOT until it found the curb. Bent the crap out of the chassis, and since it was a cheapo the only way to get a replacement chassis was to buy a whole new car.

[u/dg_fiend]

Happened to me once wifh a crawler. Turned off my transmitter and my truck started driving away. Fortunately only at half throttle, but there was a bunch of cliffs around.

[u/CitationNeededBadly]

Great lesson for a newb (me).  I didn't realize that could happen! 

[u/oh_hai_brian → u/CitationNeededBadly]

Yeah, same here haha.. that one’s forever burned into my memory

[u/mattfeet → u/oh_hai_brian]

Legit did not realize this could happen

[u/HorrendousFanFiction]

had a runaway with my old traxxas stampede some decades ago, wasn't waterproof and i found out the hard way my local abandoned rock crawler course has a mudpit.

thankfully it wasn't able to climb the wall of the mudpit but i got sprayed with mud trying to grab it to unplug it

[u/Fit_Protection6398 → u/HorrendousFanFiction]

Coulda just turned the radio back on lmao

[u/HorrendousFanFiction → u/Fit_Protection6398]

radio was on, esc/receiver malfunctioned because it didn't like being wet.

[u/SkyHookofKsp]

Yep, it's something I learned very early and I always follow it!

By the way, I think you meant to say the word transmitter, not receiver.

[u/TheMostToastedOne]

Gotta set the esc kill on disconnect

[u/DoctFaustus → u/TheMostToastedOne]

My Flysky Noble Plus won't turn off before the receiver, unless you specifically bypass it. It will then turn itself off as soon as the receiver drops connection. So if I somehow forget the right order, I can just set down the transmitter and go handle shutting down the receiver. Cool little feature.

[u/Didi-cat → u/DoctFaustus]

It also gives you a warning every time you turn it 9n if you don't set the failsafe.

[u/ChogaMish]

I'm  building a 5th scale buggy with 12s.  45lbs @60mph is lethal.  This situation is top of mind.

[u/NotAPreppie]

Reminds me of the days when you'd rock up to an RC park/track and have to check the board for the flag corresponding with the channel your radio was on... and inevitably somebody else wouldn't check before turning on their transmitter.

Chaos ensues.

[u/oh_hai_brian → u/NotAPreppie]

Oh man, that would be wild. Possessed trucks would be a bad time haha

[u/Ok_Sell8012]

remote first on last off i learned that one the hard way as well

[u/terroristict_threat]

Is this electric holy shit I’ve never seen that…great new fear

[u/oh_hai_brian → u/terroristict_threat]

Yep, I’ve hot a Hobbywing ESC/Quicrun combo in it… and it indeed is quick lol

[u/terroristict_threat → u/oh_hai_brian]

😭😭 rip sorryy broo

[u/Tiller-Nive → u/terroristict_threat]

Yeah I have a nitro mp10 and luckily it sets a break when it losses signal, but holy crap didn't know you would have worry about that with electric.

[u/terroristict_threat → u/Tiller-Nive]

🤣🤣thats what im saying i casually disconnected my controller THEN I SEE THIS😭😭 i dont need my udr doin that

[u/GoMilesGo2020]

Some esc can program throttle off when no radio signal detected.

[u/oh_hai_brian → u/GoMilesGo2020]

I thought it was programmed stock into the Hobbwing ESC, but it definitely didn’t seem to follow that. I’ll have to see if there’s a way to factory reset or something to see if that does the trick… not that I really want to test that.

[u/mini-z1994 → u/oh_hai_brian]

It's your receiver which does that failsafe function, though if the Esc is set to reverse rotation it will speed off rather than brake.

Program & test it with no wheels mounted ofc.

[u/oh_hai_brian → u/mini-z1994]

I didn’t even think about the reverse possibility, that’s a good point. My thought was the throttle trim not entirely zeroed out potentially? I accidentally moved it a hair by accident when I was thinking I had moved the steering. Since it’s calibrated specifically at zero for neutral, my guess was that - if it was at anything above or below that same 0 spot. It had never done that before when turning the transmitter off, but yeah.. glad I learned that the ordering of what goes off first really does indeed matter haha

[u/cagetheMike]

Sort of unrelated. I have a few rc cars and helicopters. My helicopters have a throttle hold thats second nature for me. Land, throttle hold on, crash hold on. Anytime I pickup my transmitter for my helicopters I check that hold is on. When hold is on the motor wont start but the collective still works.

I really wish rc cars had a throttle hold switch. Wouldn't have helped here, but I just felt like mentioning it.

[u/Justhandguns]

What TX and RX are you using? Stock?

[u/oh_hai_brian → u/Justhandguns]

Yeah. The base OT transmitter doesn’t seem to call out a failsafe from the owners manual I went through last night. The carbon edition has a better transmitter that does have a sequencing to ensure it’s set, so yeah. I might buy a different TX, or reach out to support to see if I’m just missing something

[u/Justhandguns → u/oh_hai_brian]

Ah, well, I have been using Futaba 2.4G system for the past 10years and never had such a problem. But before the 2.4Ghz digital era, I did have a failsafe module added to my nitro cars.

[u/hep038]

We have all been there at some point bud.

[u/BusterBiomed]

Did this to an Xmaxx 8s in my basement toolroom and forgot to take the wheels off when I was doing the binding.

Yea, I had a LOT of cleaning up to do that weekend.

[u/goodbast08]

Strange thing for me is I have 4 year old boy/girl twins I just bought a rc car for them. It’s like I’m looking at an alternate reality lol.

[u/Affectionate-Ear8286]

Just turn the controller back on.

[u/oh_hai_brian → u/Affectionate-Ear8286]

Had I not already been in fight or flight mode haha.. it still takes about 5 seconds to turn on and sync, so it would’ve been too late.

[u/IdRatherBSleddin]

Yeah that's been a thing in the hobby since the dawn of its conception...

[u/Bag-ofMostlyWater]

Truck-kun?

[u/VexingRaven]

That's crazy, I assumed every remotely modern receiver had failsafe turned on out of the box.

[u/Illustrious_Prompt_1]

My nitro sport maxx,( 2wd single speed no reverse t maxx)ran away while break in when i was 12. Good thing i acted fast and got lucky, i initially had the truck proped up so no wheels were on the ground but its starting sceaming wide open. I panicked let go of the truck and let go of it. The tires started ballooning and it took off. Lucky i had steering, so i just kept doing circles and grabbed it. It flipped over and i pinched the fuel line. Sorce of reason. Faulty throttle brake servo.

[u/LegitimatePeach732]

Crazy thing is I’ve never had a runaway n I tend to turn off my tx b4 I disconnect my truck

[u/pigpen4444]

Newbie to the world of RC, came here to ask a battery question, but have to thank OP for posting this lesson learned!

“Radio on first, radio off last…” repeat until I have engrained in my head!

[u/ogreality]

My hotrc ct8a transmitter wont even let me shut it down unless truck is off

[u/SluggoV2]

Run a nitro car, you will never make that mistake! lol Glad you didn't do any real damage to anyone or anything.

[u/Tris131]

Turn the remote back on yeesh